Raila now suggests economic sabotage

NASA leader Raila Odinga addresses the media after meeting with a delegation from Narok, Kajiado, Samburu and Marsabit counties in Nairobi. [photo:Emanuel Wanson]

The Opposition has threatened to call for a boycott of companies it accuses of manipulating the August 8 election results.

On Wednesday, National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga claimed there was a conspiracy between local and global players to undermine Kenya's democratic principles.

"We are considering beginning an economic boycott of products and services of corporations that are working against the interests of the people of Kenya," said Raila.

The Opposition leader singled out mobile phone service provider Safaricom, insisting the firm colluded with French firm OT-Morpho to route the August 8 results to servers abroad but made no provision to return the results to Kenya.

Raila also accused Safaricom of failing to adequately respond to issues he raised on Tuesday regarding the firm's alleged complicity in the annulled presidential election.

However, Raila failed to provide evidence of the alleged collusion, and both OT-Morpho and Safaricom have denied his claims.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has since clarified the firm’s role in the August General Election.

“Contrary to what is alleged in the NASA statement, results from the KIEMS kits from Safaricom zones were transmitted and are on the IEBC web portal,” said Mr Collymore.

He explained that Safaricom provided a dedicated secure tunnel to transmit the encrypted data from the KIEMS kits to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) server, also known as a Virtual Private Network or VPN.

The firm had been tasked to provide technical support to IEBC before, during and after August 8 election, including a dedicated project manager.

In addition, Safaricom was to provide a record of transmissions from all the SIM cards provided to IEBC under the contract for purposes of the General Election.

On how transmission was conducted, Collymore explained the country was divided into zones allocated to three main mobile network operators - Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and Airtel Kenya.

He described Raila's claims on the firm's involvement in the annulled presidential election as "reckless".

Deeply concerned

"Safaricom is deeply concerned that the NASA statement has recklessly gone ahead to mention innocent Safaricom staff members, needlessly endangering them and their families. This action is callous and unnecessary,” Collymore said.

The CEO said the firm was ready to be investigated.

“Safaricom is ready to face any investigations and or private prosecutions, brought by any party, on this matter," he said.